Thank you to Elizabeth Cimaglia for the DIK review for Sherry Thomas' Tempting the Bride (link here http://likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=9171) - I really appreciated her analysis of the three interconnected books. She's right that one of the themes of the trilogy is the idea of the maturation of love. I am just taking the liberty to paste two readers' comments from the Recently Read July-October thread for completeness in discussion of this book (hope this is OK):

Rosie wrote:

I stayed up way too late last night finishing Sherry Thomas' Tempting the Bride. I totally agree with the DIK status/review it got here at AAR. I probably would've finished the book sooner if I hadn't kept stopping to reread paragraphs that just took my breath away. There's something about Thomas' writing that is just so compelling and lovely to me.

I adored Hastings and Helena and their story. The old amnesia trope worked here -- in fact, I LOVED that Hastings got to have the hope of a "new beginning" with the girl he loved because of that old pesky bump on Helena's head. LOL Thomas isn't afraid to write flawed characters who make stupid mistakes -- and then finally come to their senses. I loved the characters in this trilogy -- flaws and all.

Tempting the Bride , Sherry Thomas (A-) I think I may have enjoyed this novel best of the three of her trilogy, which surprised me because I thoroughly enjoyed Ravishing the Bride and expected it to be the best. I particularly love the late Victorian era as it holds so much promise for women. Helena benefits from being able to attend university, which was beginning to be a possibility for women around the turn of the century, and the novel has strains of emergent feminism that is well displayed in the characterization of Helena and all of her potential in life. As a Victorian-era background the conservative sexual mores are still well in place, however, and Helena pays a price for her desire for a married man. The amnesia plot worked fine for me, though I did wonder a little at the relative absence of physicians in the novel given the severity of the head blow Helena receives early in the book. What I most liked about this story is the relationship that develops between Helena and David after the accident. I love how bifurcated David is between the Hastings of the past, the man/boy who lived to torment Helena with sarcasm and hostility, and the David post-accident, the man completely in love with Helena and willing to wear his heart on his sleeve to redeem himself for her. It is interesting in the novel how Helena switches back and forth in her own mind between "Hastings" and "David" as she grapples with her own memories and her own feelings about this complex man and their difficult relationship. I completely believed in their love and their HEA by the end, which is a writing feat given where these two characters were at start of the novel.

The main flaw for me in this book and actually in all three of them is that I'm not fully appreciative of Sherry Thomas's minimalism. Her books to put it starkly are too short to carry the heaviness of the plot and the entire novel could well have benefited from an extra hundred or two pages of text. Hugely important and emotionally-wrought scenes take place over two or three pages. I felt the emotions and bought into them completely but still felt deprived at the brisk pace for a story that deserved more time and attention. Nonetheless, I enjoyed all three of them immensely and hope she continues to write historical romances sooner rather than later.

I too agree with Blackjack1 that Tempting the Bride should have been 50-100 pages longer to do justice to the scope of the story. As a physician, I am amazed at myself for my suspension of disbelief with regards to the amnesia. It was very well-written, and of course, for the purposes of plotting, the appropriate memories came back at opportune times to drive the story forward and elevate the tension, etc. In real life, amnesic patients are much more frustrated and upset, to the point of depression, with such a huge chunk of memory loss. The lucidity Helena has, as well as the lack of other neurological deficit (physical, cognitive, etc) is rather far-fetched for the degree of her brain injury, which caused several days of coma - the only deficit she has is the selective amnesia which drives the romance forward. However, I really enjoyed this third book of the series, and would agree with most posters that it may be my favourite, after all!

I could not resist buying The Bride of Larkspear on kindle after finishing Tempting the Bride. We are given snippets from it (these are unchanged as far as I can tell) within Tempting the Bride. A word of warning for readers - the lovemaking is not all vanilla, but many mainstream romances have sex scenes which are just as hot. I think The Bride of Larkspear is a bit like dessert after a meal - some people may like it very much, and it completes the story. Others may pass on it, and still be OK.

You have no idea how I was waiting to see if someone would post a thread being in the middle of reading this book this week. Low and behold I was about to do one today as I was finishing the book with maybe 2 more chapters to go.

But guess what happens. I fall asleep with my kindle in my hand it crashes to the floor I wake up see it on the floor and the screen is damaged with content showing only on half the screen. LOL I have to call and see if I can get it fixed. Anyway end result I had to get an upgrade my warranty finished. lol

So yeah after reading this fabulous book that had me turning pages I unfortunately have to wait a couple weeks to finish it. Unbelievable never has happened to me I'm usually careful with my electronics guess not this time.

So just wanted to say loved the majority think it was the best in the series. Which also leaves me a bit surprised as I fully expected the second to be my fave.

The story of David and Helena took the prize. Anyone that read the trilogy I can tell you that this is the one that is the standout. I know Sherry Thomas really stated that Ravishing the Heiress was her favortie book she's written. But for me it was too heartwrenching and sad.

This one makes you smile laugh want to cry but gives you those melting moments too that makes you really happy for the couple.

I loved Tempting the Bride so much that after reading it on my Kindle, I will also buy it in paperback (my highest compliment). Not many books come close to the laugh-out-loud witty snarkiness of one of my other favorites (Lord of Scoundrels) but this one did. Great!

So just wanted to say loved the majority think it was the best in the series. Which also leaves me a bit surprised as I fully expected the second to be my fave.

The story of David and Helena took the prize. Anyone that read the trilogy I can tell you that this is the one that is the standout. I know Sherry Thomas really stated that Ravishing the Heiress was her favortie book she's written. But for me it was too heartwrenching and sad.

Same here. I thought the second book would be my favorite. But the swooniness of Tempting the Bride won out over the angstiness of Ravishing the Heiress.

Just finished this. Very nice. Nothing deep, and the story does not hold up well under too much scrutiny (you just have to be willing to "go with it"), but I very much liked Hastings and Helena as a couple. I'd rate this a B or B+.

I agree the book needed about 50 more pages to do justice to the evolution of the relationship between H/h and H/h/Bea. I was a bit annoyed also at how readily (spoiler)Helena pounced on Hastings. She's bald (though somehow she's able to get a ribbon in her hair???), thin, and has no recollection of having been with a man, yet she pretty easily sheds her inhibitions with her husband. That's right, in the blink of an eye, she goes from being an untried virgin to tying Hastings up and then fellating him. For me, taking their relationship to that level required way more build-up than we were given.(end spoiler) I think the author's analogy to appetizer/main meal/dessert is pretty accurate.

@msaggie - I thoroughly enjoyed reading your assessment through the lens of a physician's eye. Like you I let much of the discrepancies slide a bit here because the writing is so nice and I enjoyed the overall story a great deal, but I did read the aftermath of a severe head injury with a raised eyebrow. My mother suffered memory loss toward the end of her life due to congestive heart failure and it was so sad because she felt terribly frustrated and even angry with everyone around her. Of all the things she went through at the end of her life, memory loss might have been the most difficult for her. Also, as a horse owner and rider (Blackjack is actually my horse's name), I have a little difficulty imagining surviving the impact of a kick to the temple. I'm suppose it can happen, but that is quite an injury not only to sustain but to be able to get up and walk around a few days later.